LOCAL
ROADS (top) are the first essential to any rural recreational systemgood
roads which provide quick, year-round, and economical access to recreation.
RURAL HOUSING (center) is not only substandard technically but so scattered
as seriously to impede the development of vigorous community recreation.
RECREATIONAL TYPES (bottom) of primary importance in the rural environment
are those which emphasize group activitythe farmer has solitude
enough.

ROADS:
The specialization in automotive transportation has led to a similar specialization
in road designthe parkway, the trunk highway, the freeway. But these
are of only secondary interest to the ruralite; most necessary to him
is a good system of local-access roads (above) to carry him to school,
to church, to market, and to play.

HOUSING: Although designed for landless migrants, the physical organization
of many of FSA's western projects is something the farmer may well envy
(above). If multiple or row-housing is strange to American traditions,
there is the possiblity of grouping single-family houses into tight communities
with outlying farms.

RECREATIONAL TYPES: Since the "major labor experience" of
the farmer is manual and much of it lonely, it is not surprising to find
the "get-together" an American institution. Whether for singing,
dancing, baseball, or theatricals, the emphasis is on group activity,
competition. The need for trained organizing and supervising personnel
is at least as great as in the city where such personnel is a recognized
necessity.

RECREATIONAL AREAS: Recognition of rural recreational needs is too
recent to permit of much agreement as to design standards. An outdoor
theater in North Carolina is already famous for its folk festivals; and
Mr. Rose has designed an outdoor theater in which multiple stages surround
the audience, permitting great flexibility of use, elimination of elaborate
equipment.

DESIGN: The alleged "romantic informality" of the countryside
is not borne out by the fields themselves. Here the face of nature is
being quite as consciously reorganized by man for his increased welfare
as in the city. These fields do not "blend" with naturethey
are in great contrast with it. Whence, then, the theory that landscape
and building design must go rustic in the rural areas?

by Garret Eckbo, Daniel U. Kiley, James C.
Rose

"THERE IS A
sentimentalism in America about 'the country' as a place to live,"
says Mr. Will W. Alexander in a report on rural housing. "Fresh air,
the minds of many of our peopleis particularly city people—is
thought of as a satisfactory substitute for a decent income, wholesome
food, medical care, educational opportunities, and everything else which
the city dwellers think as necessary. . . ." Such a romantic attitude
is all too apparent among American designers, who fail to see that the
"old swimming hole" needs lifeguards and pure water, that the
baseball field needs illumination, or that the farm boy may be quite as
interested in aviation or theatricals as his city cousin. On the other
hand, there is the danger thatonce recognizing these needsthe
building or landscape designer (because of his own urban background and
experience) will uncritically apply urban design standards to a rural
problem.

The irreducible requisite of any successful planning
is that the forms developed will direct the flow of energy in the most
economic and productive pattern. This is the criterion in the design of
the power dam, the automobile, and the modern cotton field: it should
also hold in landscape and building design, where the energy and vitality
directed is that of human beings. But to organize the rural areas into
the most productive pattern requires an intimate knowledge of the characteristics,
rhythm, and potentialities of rural life. For if it is true that people
differ little in the fundamental living needs of food, shelter, work,
and play (regardless of the locality in which they live), it is equally
true that the physical aspects of that locality (its topography, fertility,
accessibility, exploitation, and industrialization) influence and condition
the extent to which, and the method by which, it can be adapted to the
needs of its people.

Homesteading and the rugged individualism of the
pioneers determined the general characteristics of the rural scene. This
system necessitated staking out claims and living in relative isolation
to defend and improve these claims.

The family became the social and recreational unit,
supplemented by the school and church in the village which grew up for
trading purposes. But, as Mr. David Cushman Coyle has pointed out, with
changing technology and local depletion of mine, forest, and soil, we
find a new type of rural population which no longer fits into the pattern
of living developed by the pioneer. Recent surveys show:

1. Mechanization of agriculture has cut in half the
man labor required per bushel of wheat in 1919. In one county of western
Kansas, it is cut to one quarter.

2. The nation's supply of farm land is steadily decreasing.
The National Resources Board reports that as a result of soil erosion,
35,000,000 acres of farm land have been made entirely unfit for cultivation,
while another 125,000,000 acres have had topsoil largely removed. A good
deal of land to be inherited by farm youth is practically worthless, and
will be abandoned.

3. In spite of decreasing birth rate, we have a large
surplus of rural youth in proportion to farms available, and our expanding
farm population is squeezed within a shrinking area of farm land. In 1920,
for example, 160,000 farmers died or reached the age of 65; and in the
same year, 337,000 farm boys reached the age of 18. In 1930, the surplus
of boys with no prospects was 201,000. Vital statistics indicate that
with the decrease in infant mortality, this surplus will increase.

4. The present and future farmer is also the victim
of an accumulating drain of money from the farm to the city. He sells
in a city market controlled by the buyer, and buys in a city market controlled
by the seller. The farm youth is educated in rural districts, and then
finds it necessary to migrate to the city to make a living. Dr. O. E.
Baker, of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, estimates that this movement
of population from 1920 to 1930 carried to the city human values that
had cost over 12,000,000,000 dollars in private and public cash spent
by rural districts.

5. The exhaustion of the farmland in some areassuch
as Oklahoma or Kansasand the simultaneous development of a highly
mechanized agriculture in others-California, Texas, or Florida, for examplehas
meanwhile given birth to a new rural phenomenon the migratory agricultural
workers. This group constitutes a quite special and pressing problem over
and above that of the rural population generally.

Special characteristics of rural life

What do such trends as those listed above imply in
the design of rural recreational systems? A recognition of the facts that
first and foremost the country must be redesigned for country peoplei.e.,
neither from the viewpoint of nor for the benefit of the urbanite. Second,
in view of constantly changing social and economic conditions, that such
systems should provide a plastic and flexible environment for both local
and migratory farmers. Third, that such systems should be closely integrated
with both urban and primeval areas, providing the greatest possible intercommunication
between all three. Finally, that the following special and fairly constant
factors of rural life be recognized:

1. The periods during which recreational facilities
can be used by most rural inhabitants are more seasonal than daily. Whereas
the city worker usually has a certain number of hours each day with a
summer (or winter) vacation of short duration, the farmer has a majority
of free time during winter months. This implies an emphasis on enclosed
and roofed facilities.

2. Since rural labor is largely physical, and requires
the use of the larger muscular system, it is reasonable to supply facilities
for recreation which afford experience which is physically, mentally,
and psychologically different from the major labor experience, i. e.,
folk dancing, swimming, arts and crafts, dramatic production, folk pageantry,
etc.

3. The present relative isolation of farm families
and dependence upon automotive transportation make it desirable for the
entire family to seek recreation at one time. This places emphasis on
the school, church, and country park as centers for recreation, and requires
facilities for participation by all age and sex groups at one time.

4. Since the mobile fraternity has become such an
important part of the rural scene, special facilities are necessary for
the migratory laborers, the tourists, and the vacationists. It is necessary
to provide for these groups, and integrate their activities with those
of the more permanent residents without destroying the economic and social
balance. The need here is for multiple-use and flexibility in design with
particular emphasis on a system integrated with the highway, shore front,
waterways, and spots of scenic, natural, and historic as well as scientific
interest.

Thus it can be seen that rural recreation
is based on an entirely different set of conditions than urban, and it
can be approached only by detailed study of specific local requirements
in their relation to the region. In general, one can say that whereas
in the cities the need is for more free space (decentralization), the
rural need is for more intensive use of less space (concentration) to
permit and provide for the social integration of a widely distributed
population. But the latter does not imply mere urbanization of the country
any more than the former means mere ruralization of the city.*

Roads are first

The first and most essential element
of any rural recreational environment will necessarily be an adequate
highway system. Yet, despite the gigantic advances in highway construction
in the past decade, the fact remains that most rural communities are without
a road system adequate for their needs. Consciously or otherwise, the
majority of federal and state construction is designed to facilitate communication
between one city and the next. "With the bypass or through-highway
principle on the one hand, and the freeway or border-control principle
on the other, we have the tools to adapt our future network to meet recreational
needs . . . but that is only part of the highway problem. There are still
the problems of local access and touring. . . . We must not only provide
good trunk-highway access, but also good local-access roads. These local
roads must serve directly the various cities, towns, and villages; and
must open up recreational lands."**

Consolidated communities mean better recreation

Closely allied with the problem of transportation
is that of rural housing. As long as the traditional pattern remainsthinly
scattered houses, one to each farmit is quite possible that a genuinely
satisfactory recreational environment will not be evolved. In this connection,
it is interesting to note quickly social integration has followed physical
integration in the new towns by TVA, FSA, and in the Greenbelt towns of
the former Resettlement Administration. As a matter of fact, leading cultural
economists are advocating similar consolidationthe regrouping of
farmers into villages from which they can work their land within a radius
of 5 to 10 miles of them. (This type of village is of course prevalent
in Europe and in isolated spots of America). There is already a general
trend towards consolidation and reorganization of schools and school districts.
And the recent western projects of the Farm Security Administrationwhile
of course signed for the landless migrantsclearly indicate the physical
advantages of a similar concentration of housing facilities.

What types of recreation are required?

WPA research reveals that the age rural community
needs provision for the following types of recreation:

1. Crafts and visual arts, graphic plastic. (These
might well be organized around the rapidly developing science and manual
arts curricula in most rural high schools.)

4. Recreational drama, including marionettes and
puppets, plays, motion pictures, pageants, festivals, etc. The outdoor
theater is recommended as an ideal form; it also encourages children in
their own improvisations.

5. Childrens' play center, including such equipment
as slides, horizontal bars, swings, see-saws, trapezes, marble courts,
sand box (preferably adjacent to the wading pool with an island m children
can play and sail boats).

7. Other activities and special events: picnics require
an area of several acres with outdoor fireplaces, barb pits, wood supply,
and provisions waste disposal (can also serve as a wayside camp for motorist).
Occasional field days, community nights, agricultural fairs, carnivals,
traveling circuses can occupy the largest free used for sports at different
seasons.

What sort of facilities are implied?

All these activities require special equipment centering
around the district school, rural park, or other location signed to serve
the rural inhabitants rather than the urban overflow. The usefulness is
multiplied by complete well designed flood lighting, since outdoor activities
come in the summerprecisely when the majority of rural inhabitants
are busiest during the day.

Although there is perhaps no single form which meets
so well the various needs of the rural community, the door theater has
never been satisfactorily reinterpreted as a present recreational form
in its own right. Developed as an integral part of the rural park, and
in a dynamic, three-dimensional pattern, it provides for all constant
use by all age groups. Actual productions require the assistance practically
all types of craftsman which are physically, mentally, and psychologically
different from the major labor experience. With stages at different levels,
following the natural contours, and seats ingeniously arranged to accommodate
both large and small audiences (top, right); with the present perfection
of sound amplification; with "scene-shifting” by spotlights
instead of curtains, a type as flexible as the auditorium without its
expense intricacy is achieved. Its utility is flexible as its organization,
since it accommodates both large and small productions, festivals, pageantry,
improvisations, summer-theatre groups, exhibitions, meetings, picnics,
and talks.

Many opportunities are overlooked,
by sticking too closely to arbitrary and static concepts of recreational
planning For example, the local airport is a form which deserves attention
because of the interest and activity which surrounds Already a center
of Sunday afternoon interest for many an American farm family, it orients
the rural population a larger social concept of the world outside, as
well as satisfying the characteristic American interest in the technical.
The same thing might be said about the old canal, the abandoned railroad
engine, and the automobile junk pile—all of which hold an endless
fascination for small children.***

Towards scientific landscape design

With the exception of urban infringement in the form
of summer colonies, tourist camps and hotels, and commercial recreational
facilities designed mainly for the use of urban motorists, little provision
for recreation exists outside America's cities. Indeed, urban invasion-in
the form of commercialized amusements, billboards, suburbanization and
the "naturalism" of "preserving rural beauty" by screening
out rural slums with a parkway prevents an indigenous and biological development
of rural beauty. It is thus that we handicap ourselves with a static and
inflexible environment, and lose the opportunity of developing forms which
express the needs of the people and the qualities of the region.

This is particularly unfortunate as concerns landscape
design. The country is thought of as a restorative for the exhausted city
dweller, and a land of plenty for the farmer. When help is offered by
well-meaning urban societies it is, as often as not, "for the preservation
of rural beauties" which look well on a post card. Another group
is afraid of destroying the "delightful in. formality" by intelligent
and straightforward reorganization of nature for the use of man. They
resort to "rustic" bridges, and "colonial" cottages
which will "blend" with nature. Obviously this point of view
can be held only by those who do not live on the land.

We may as well accept the fact that
man's activities change and dominate the landscape; it does not follow
that they should spoil it. Writing on the redesign of the American landscape,
Paul B. Sears has said: "Not only must
the scientist of the future work in awareness of social and economic processes,
but he must clear a further hurdle. . . . The scientist must be aware
of the relation of his task to the field of aesthetics. What is right
and economical and in balance is in general satisfying. Not the least
important symptom of the present decay of the American landscape is its
appalling ugliness. . . . The landscape of the United States, with its
two billions of acres for a potential population of one hundred and fifty
million, or even two hundred million, can be made a place of plenty, permanence,
and beauty. But this most assuredly cannot be done without the aid of
science. Nor can such aid be rendered by men of science unaware of the
task which confronts them."

***Recently, a recreational expert, showing some distinguished
visitors in Washington the advanced planning of children's play areas
in one of the greenbelt towns, was somewhat chagrined to find them quite
deserted. But, as they started back to Washington, they passed the town's
children playing on a dump used for fill along the roadway. One of the
ladies of the party turned to the expert and inquired brightly: "And
I suppose you will plan something for these children, too? Return
to text.

"Science and the New Landscape," Harper's
Magazine, July 1939, page-207. Return
to text.